hola de sucre, bolivian andes

hello everyone. sorry for the sparsity of blogs of late. since last writing we have spent 13h on a train from the brazilian border to santa cruz. previous to this trip i had not realised that train tracks could have potholes!!! really, we were bouncing left right and up and down the entire time. suffice to say there was not much quality sleep to be had. oh well. santa cruz was the first real bolivian city we saw and it wasnt real impressive... just a city... although they have a mad love of columns, skinny footpaths, and horn beeping. this morning we took a flight with bolivian LAB into the ANDES!!! a 30min flight later and we are 2900m above sea level. ears popping. water bottles pressurised. breath short when carrying bags up 2 fligths. but the city looks wonderful. the first real place that looks like the south america i have pictured in my head. nestled in the hills (was worried about where we would find a level patch of land for the runway). red tiled roofs. ladies wearing colourful clothes, hats, and carrying kids in rainbow slings. great. and the air is clean. but we havent actually been anywhere yet. just arrived 20min ago and am using hotel´s free internet... beautiful hotel also. open central portion full of plants. old style. www.independenciahotel.com. ok. the plan for today is dinosaur footprints and churches. will update all again later. buenos dias amigos.